How to Check Domain Rating and DA for Free

You don't need a paid Ahrefs or Moz subscription to check your domain rating. Ahrefs' free Website Authority Checker shows a site's Domain Rating (DR) on a 0 to 100 scale, and a free Moz account shows Domain Authority (DA) on a 1 to 100 scale. That's enough to benchmark a link-building push.

DR vs DA: what you're actually measuring

Before you check anything, know what the number means. Domain Rating (DR) is Ahrefs' score. Ahrefs describes it on its Website Authority Checker page as a measure of "the quantity and quality of external backlinks to a website," plotted on a 100-point logarithmic scale, so each point is harder to gain than the last. Domain Authority (DA) is Moz's equivalent. Moz's Domain Authority guide gives it a range of 1 to 100 and states plainly that it is not a direct ranking factor.

Both are built mostly on the quantity and quality of referring domains pointing at a site.
A higher number roughly means "this site has a stronger, more linked-to profile."
DR and DA won't match each other. A site can be DR 40 and DA 28; they use different indexes and different maths.
Neither is used by Google. They are third-party estimates, useful for comparison and tracking.

If the term is new to you, start with what is domain authority for the full breakdown, then come back to check yours.

The free tools to check domain rating

You don't need to pick one. Run two and compare them. These are the options that cost nothing:

Tool	Metric	Cost	Best for
Ahrefs Website Authority Checker	DR	Free	The real DR from Ahrefs' own index
Ahrefs Webmaster Tools	DR plus backlinks	Free for sites you verify	Tracking your own site over time
Moz Link Explorer	DA	Free Moz account, limited queries	The original DA score and linking root domains
Semrush (free account)	Authority Score	Limited daily lookups	Cross-checking a third metric
Majestic free backlink checker	Trust Flow and Citation Flow	Free, more with a free login	Spotting volume without quality (Trust Flow explained)
Free bulk checkers	Mixed	Free	Scanning a list of possible partners quickly

A few notes:

Ahrefs' free Website Authority Checker is the most direct way to check domain rating free, because the score comes straight from Ahrefs rather than a third-party estimate.
Moz's free account gives you genuine DA plus linking root domains, which is the number that actually explains the score.
Free bulk checkers are handy for scanning many domains at once, but they often resell or approximate scores. Confirm any number that matters in Ahrefs or Moz directly.
Free tiers change often, so the exact lookup limits on each tool may differ from what you saw last month.

How to read the number without fooling yourself

A score alone tells you very little. Always look past it:

Referring domains, not total backlinks. 500 links from 12 domains is weak. 200 links from 200 domains is strong. Breadth beats volume.
Relevance and traffic. A DR 50 site with no organic traffic is often a manipulated or abandoned domain. Cross-check with a free traffic estimate.
Trend, not snapshot. One reading tells you little. Two readings a month apart tell you whether the profile is growing or decaying.

This matters most when you're sizing up a partner. A clean profile is one of the first things to confirm, so read how to vet a link swap partner before you trade anything.

Benchmark before and after your swaps

Checking your DR is only valuable if you use it to measure progress:

Record a baseline today. Note your DR, DA and referring-domain count in a simple spreadsheet.
Run your link-building plan: directories, earned mentions and 1-for-1 swaps with relevant sites.
Re-check monthly, on the same day. Use the same tools each time so the numbers are comparable.
Watch referring domains first. They move before DR or DA does, because both scores lag behind new links by weeks.

Adding relevant referring domains is what moves the score, and that's the gap Backlinkster is built to close. It matches you with site owners in related niches for 1-for-1 in-content swaps, and each swap is verified by API before it counts. You watch your referring-domain count climb between checks, the honest way.

When the number is low, and what to do

A new site often reads DR 0 to 5. That's the starting line, not a verdict.

A low score means too few unique referring domains. That's almost always the cause.
Don't chase the number directly. Buying links to push a score up is how profiles end up penalised.
Add relevant links steadily. A few new referring domains a month beats a spike of fifty overnight.

If your reading came back weak, low domain authority fix has the step-by-step.

Frequently asked questions

How can I check my domain rating for free? Enter your domain into Ahrefs' free Website Authority Checker. It shows your DR on a 0 to 100 scale. For ongoing tracking of your own site, verify it in Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, which is also free.

Is domain rating the same as domain authority? No. Domain Rating is Ahrefs' metric and Domain Authority is Moz's. Both estimate backlink strength, but they use different link indexes and formulas, so the same site usually gets two different numbers.

Does Google use DR or DA to rank websites? No. Both are third-party metrics. Moz says directly that DA is not a ranking factor. They're useful for comparing sites and tracking progress, not as a target in themselves.

What is a good domain rating? It depends on your niche and competitors. Compare yourself with the sites ranking for your target keywords rather than with an absolute number. A DR 30 site can outrank a DR 60 site on a specific topic with better content and more relevant links.

How often does domain rating update? Both scores change as each tool's crawler finds new and lost links, but a new link can take weeks to show up in the score. Monthly checks are enough for most sites.

Now that you have a baseline number, give it something to climb on. Start on the free plan: five swaps a month, no spend. Then re-check your DR next month.